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Affordable training for newbies


Lily Rose

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Has anyone used, or heard anything about, a one day beginners boat handling tuition course by Trines Ward?

 

I found her name in the training section of the Braunston Marina website.

 

Seems very good value, 8 hours for a couple on their own boat for only £100, and thorough as it covers lots of stuff. All assuming she's any good of course. (Googling for reviews found nothing which worries me a bit)

 

I'm interested for myself but even more so for my (nervous) wife so she can have more skill and confidence once we get our own boat in a few weeks, survey permitting.

 

No qualification comes of it but that's not what I'm after.

 

Thanks in advance (again).

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I would suggest that you go on two courses organised by RCR. They hold them at Alvechurch. They are on engines etc and on boat electrics. Howard Williams does the electrics one - he is a good sparky and very knowledgeable he writes in Towpath Talks. Don't know who does the engine one these days - it used to be Tony Brooks of this forum.

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Thanks Richard, I already had those RCR courses on my to do list so it's good to get a recommendation.

 

Priority 1 though is to get my nervous wife trained by someone who can build her confidence enough so that she could take the boat in and out of locks on her own leaving me free to operate the lock. At the moment there is no chance of that!

 

It's disappointing that no-one seems to know anything about Trines Ward, I would have thought someone would given that Braunston Marina link to her website as their suggestion for just this sort of training.

 

https://sites.google.com/site/boathandlingtuition/

https://sites.google.com/site/boathandlingtuition/tuition-programme--fees

 

According to her website she offers exactly what I am looking for (plus the courses you recommend at a slightly later date) as it appears to cover lots of stuff useful for a newbie and excellent value at £100 for an 8 hour day for two people. But only if she's good!

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I personally wouldn't waste the money. The best thing you can do is throw yourself in at the deep end and get out there and practice, put yourself in awkward situations )not dangerous and while on your own) and try to get yourself out of them. After all it's only 5 ft of water with no current. And at the end of the day spend that £100 on a pint and packet of crisps. Of course this is my own opinion which my differ from others.

 

Darren

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I personally wouldn't waste the money. The best thing you can do is throw yourself in at the deep end and get out there and practice, put yourself in awkward situations )not dangerous and while on your own) and try to get yourself out of them. After all it's only 5 ft of water with no current. And at the end of the day spend that £100 on a pint and packet of crisps. Of course this is my own opinion which my differ from others.

Darren

 

I fully agree. There was going to be no way and not under any circumstances that my wife would even hold the tiller whilst the engine was running three boat holidays ago. She "specialized" in lock operation and loved it. Almost every lock was a social event and my wife benefited and gained a confotable familierarity with boating.

Eventually, she would steer while I popped to the loo and taking a little bit longer each time.

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Unfortunately my wife will not, for reasons I won't go into here, be able to fully operate locks so I need her to have sufficient confidence to take the boat in and out of locks without me on board, particularly in wide locks.

 

At the moment she is able to keep the boat in (more or less) a straight line for a short time on a straight stretch of canal with no other boats, bridges etc and with me standing beside her. She can also hold the boat reasonably still in a narrow lock so I can climb in or out whilst in the lock and operate it.

 

At the moment I can't see how I can improve on this situation without the assistance of someone used to coaching very nervous beginners.

 

Somebody must surely have heard of Trines Ward? Please?

 

I'm starting to think I've imagined her!

 

If it was just me I probably wouldn't bother but it's not, it's mainly for my wife. Any benefit to me would just be a bonus.

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I think there's some value in hiring someone to help you get to grips with your boat but the question I would ask is why is it so inexpensive? £100 for eight hours? I don't know anyone who would sell their skills that cheap even if there are no overheads.

 

I would be inclined to use an RYA approved instructor but, frankly, there is no substitute for practice and experience. Find a quiet stretch of water and just get a feel for how the boat behaves, how it reacts to wind, how it behaves in reverse etc. For example, one of the most useful things to know about your boat is how it reacts when, going forward, you suddenly throw it into reverse. This is a typical scenario when approaching bridges, locks etc. and if you know how the boat reacts you can counter it so she will pull up in a straight line.

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I would suggest you contact Linda Andrews at Cheshire Cat narrowboats, she specialises in training nervous people and also does women only courses, as someone who also teaches, it's usually better if your not there ( don't teach your own wife to drive syndrome),

Hope this helps.

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The fact that it is so inexpensive is why I am trying to find out if she is any good before potentially wasting money.

 

I hear what you all say about experience and practice and that has worked fine for me.

 

You don't know my wife though so please believe me when I tell you that it is unlikely to work with her. I liken this to people who refuse go on planes (she's one of those as well) where nothing I or anyone else could say would change this. The only hope would be to go on a proper nervous flyer course (and I've never managed to get her to do that either!)

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I did that course in Braunston 3 years ago. I had just bought my boat and was my first day out.

It was as advertised, very comprehensive. We went from Braunston to Wigrans turn, did a couple of locks and back.

Very acknowledgeable and pleasant teacher.

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@andyb116 - thanks for that suggestion, I may well go for that if I don't go for Trines.

 

@fer - thanks for some feedback on the Braunston course run by Trines. I'm glad to lean I didn't imagine her after all! I think I will speak to her once the survey is done, not only because it appears to be exactly what I need for my wife, and looks to be good VFM, but also because it is conveniently located for us as the boat is currently at Wigrams Turn and will move to Ventnor if all goes well with the survey. The three locks near Ventnor will be excellent practice as we will be going through those just about every time we leave the marina.

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OH did his training at Willow Wren based up by Wigrams Turn, and he said it was very good.

 

This was after we had a couple of very kind forum members take us out for a day on our boat and teach us some of the basic's...getting the pointy end to go in the right direction, how to moor, how to wind in a 'ol (thanks again Ray & Simon) how to line her up for a bridge 'ol etc.

 

The OH came back from the course and taught me bits & pieces. Just remember to never loose patience with her, and let her learn at her own pace.

 

We've been cc'ing for a year now and it's only been the past few months that I now feel quite comfortable being at the tiller and entering & exiting locks. It's only been in the past couple of months that Dave has had a chance to sit in the cratch and drink a beer while I take the tiller without him being there with me.

 

I remember the first time I passed a moored boat, the first time I passed an oncoming boat, the first time I went under a bridge at the tiller - all were major steps in both my confidence and enjoyment.

 

She will get there, just be patient and encouraging.

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OH did his training at Willow Wren based up by Wigrams Turn, and he said it was very good.

 

This was after we had a couple of very kind forum members take us out for a day on our boat and teach us some of the basic's...getting the pointy end to go in the right direction, how to moor, how to wind in a 'ol (thanks again Ray & Simon) how to line her up for a bridge 'ol etc.

 

The OH came back from the course and taught me bits & pieces. Just remember to never loose patience with her, and let her learn at her own pace.

 

We've been cc'ing for a year now and it's only been the past few months that I now feel quite comfortable being at the tiller and entering & exiting locks. It's only been in the past couple of months that Dave has had a chance to sit in the cratch and drink a beer while I take the tiller without him being there with me.

 

I remember the first time I passed a moored boat, the first time I passed an oncoming boat, the first time I went under a bridge at the tiller - all were major steps in both my confidence and enjoyment.

 

She will get there, just be patient and encouraging.

Maybe it would have been different if you had done the course with him

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It "might" have been, but the course was on a narrow boat, and with ours being a WB I had it in my head that they handle quite differently, and it was simply a case of me putting in the time to build up my confidence really.

 

Due to helping out some friends last summer it was a case that Dave "needed" to have the helmsman certificate in order for their insurance to be valid for the work he was doing.

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Yes I know Trines, the courses that she has done have all had a positive response from the boaters involved, and some of them have said it was particularly handy to get the basics sorted when they just bought their boat. Trines is based at Braunston marina, which means that people who buy from their brokerage often hire her.

The price, around £100, is the average price that most people charge for the course as far as I can ascertain, and she is an RYA approved/qualified or whatever the term is trainer, as I have spoken to her about the course before.

Edited by Starcoaster
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Whether you want to get some paid-for training before setting off down a canal, and if so from whom and in what aspects of boating, is going to depend on various individual circumstances and preferences. Myself I've gone down the route of gradually learning what I know so far from doing it under the supervision of an existing boater, starting with my brother teaching me to operate locks by calling out instructions from the boat, then some basic steering on a quiet stretch of canal, moving on steadily to going through bridge holes and passing other boats. Before I start doing some of the more difficult manoeuvres such as leaving or entering a tight mooring in a marina with an inconvenient wind blowing, I would at least read up about it and practise the techniques somewhere where I'm unlikely to knock someone else's boat. Basic boat maintenance (just the routine easy jobs) is knowledge I'd want to have before owning a boat, but again I'd rely on just reading about it first.

 

But for many people doing a formal day's training makes sense. For example on my recent trip as crew for paulmeds, who had just bought a nice boat and had no prior canal experience, he had an expert along for the first day to teach him the controls and how to manoeuvre the boat, by the end of which he felt confident enough to spend the next 9 days doing a long journey to the marina, and appeared to my inexperienced eyes to really have the hang of it.

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I have boated in some method since I was 13, so over 50 years and I still learn from watching and more importantly talking to professionals, that way not only do you see what they did you find out why they decided to do it that way. I still get it wrong from time to time, normally when people are watching.

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You can't buy experience or confidence I'm afraid.

 

The only way your wife will gain this is by going out there and doing it.

 

It's certainly the only way you'll learn the various foibles of your boat (something that NO "expert" will be able to teach you) such as how much engine it needs to stop in normal situations, any "drift" it develops in reverse, the way it feels when everything is running sweet, the way it feels when there's something on the prop... and so on.

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It has been said before on the forum that plenty of people do go boating for the first time with little or no training, either with one of the less responsible hire companies or after buying a boat from a certain broker famous for their lack of customer after-care. Mostly they get by somehow, but probably not before they've had the odd knock or two. I would recommend anyone just starting out who may wish to save themselves the cost of an instructor to at least do a bit of reading about the basics before starting the engine for the first time; there's a general guide on the CRT website, and lots of topics on this forum, some of them quite specific like the recent one on how to leave a tight berth in a marina, and others more general. It also helps if you have a crew member who knows how to operate locks, or has at least read the theory of it. On our recent trip, paulmeds was able to focus just on his helmsmanship and leave the locks to me, which I'm sure he found helpful.

 

My old maths teacher at school once said to me "The more I learn about maths, the more I realise there is that I don't know", and I'm sure that applies to boating. On this latest trip, I came across various crew matters I hadn't encountered before, such as the Thames locks and operating them outside the lockkeepers' hours, the K&A swing bridges, mooring on pins in heavy vegetation, and what to do when the skipper falls in.

 

I quite like it when there's a big audience of gongoozlers, I just concentrate hard on the boating decisions and don't let them distract me, except insofar as you have to keep one eye on them in case they do something which affects safety. They can be handy minions, it's often possible to talk them into opening or closing a lock gate, and on the Kennet in Reading I got a passer by to press the button for the one-way working section to save Paul some awkward work getting the boat close enough to it.

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Yes I know Trines, the courses that she has done have all had a positive response from the boaters involved, and some of them have said it was particularly handy to get the basics sorted when they just bought their boat. Trines is based at Braunston marina, which means that people who buy from their brokerage often hire her.

The price, around £100, is the average price that most people charge for the course as far as I can ascertain, and she is an RYA approved/qualified or whatever the term is trainer, as I have spoken to her about the course before.

 

 

OMG and I never charged you ANYTHING for all that training skippering REGINALD...!!!

 

That'll be 100 squids pleeze...

 

:D

 

 

MtB

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